Theodore Roosevelt Biography - Inspiring Life Story of the 26th U.S. President | Leadership & Conservation Legacy | Perfect for History Buffs & Students

In 1915, Theodore Roosevelt somehow sat long enough for this portrait photograph. Roosevelt had an unquenchable thirst for life as well as a "rip-roaring" nature, The Times wrote. He was a statesman, author, explorer, soldier, naturalist and reformer who served as the country's 26th president from 1901-1909. "He was a very great American; in their sincere mourning his fellow countrymen will proclaim him among their greatest," The Times wrote when he died at age 60 on January 6, 1919.

A larger than life figure, Roosevelt was the first president to be submerged in a submarine, the first to own a car and the first to fly in an airplane. "He was altogether original, and, therefore, continually surprising," a Times editorial said upon his death at Sagamore Hill in Oyster Bay, N.Y. "The powers of his mind were remarkable; the breadth of his interest seemed to include everything under the sun. He was a hunter, a naturalist, a ranchman, a devourer of literature, an explorer, a delver into obscure corners of human knowledge, a soldier, a historian, he was a voluminous and instructive writer.

"But, above all, he was a public man; his life was passed in the service of the public, in the influential direction of great affairs. Assemblyman at Albany, Federal Civil Service Commissioner, Police Commissioner of New York, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Colonel of the Rough Riders, Governor of this State, Vice President, President, it was a great and distinguished career."